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My dog was playing this week-end and cut her pad next to her dew claw. I quickly bandaged it. She got it off yesterday, it wasnt bleeding, but the cut looks to be about a good 1/8 inch wide and about 1/4 inch or more deep I bandaged it up again and put neosporin on it. Should I keep it bandaged or leave it off, I hear mixed things that sometimes air is better and a dogs saliva works as an antibiotic. Or should I take her in for possible stiches?
thanks
Laurie

Poor pup! I'm sorry to hear. If it were me, since it on the paw and will be walking on LOTS of stuff, I would tend to want to bandage it. Maybe put a little baggy around it so she can't take it off. But I'm not veteranarian.

Please, please call your vet. It would be a horrendous situation to find your doggy with an infection.

Certainly take your pup into the vet if it looks serious or looks irritated, red, etc.

My golden has cut her pad a couple of times and I have kept it bandaged. Yes, dog saliva will help keep their cuts clean - but since they have us to do that for them, it's better to let the cut heal. Clean it well and you could try putting some nu-skin on it to help seal it up. Bandage it and try to keep her off of it.

thanks for the info, I will look at it tonight, The new skin is also a great idea! The vet is going to think I am abusive. This poor dog has cut her pad before, nothing like this, broke her toe, (Which she had to wear a cast up to her arm pit for over three months), ripped off her dew claw (a visit to the emergency room required). She likes to play too hard. And just last week I took my other dog to the ER on a Sunday because the day before he swallowed (I think - since I couldnt find it) a sheet of wax paper about the size of 12x15 that was in the trash 10 minutes before, and the next morning he wouldnt eat and was walking funny. Of coarse the vet said the xrays showed nothing. I just had to watch him closely which he did act stange for a few days. I didnt think the wax paper could be digested like regular paper.
Laurie

My dog (golden ret) cut her pad on a sharp rock about a year ago. She yelped and limped so I took her to the emergency vet, thinking something was broken. They bandaged her paw and told me to neosporin it but charged me an arm and a leg for the visit (emergency vet on a Sunday night ).

In light of my dog's experiences, and if you don't detect that there's any kind of infection going on, I'd say thoroughly clean it, use neosporin, bandage it, and check on it nightly. The way they wrapped it up was that they put a cotton pad on the wound, wrapped in heavy gauze around her paw about 5x and then wrapped the whole thing in fabric surgical tape. She never managed to chew the bandages off each day, but she's not much of a chewer either. You can get the bandage materials at your local drugstore. There's also a neosporin ointment made with a pain releiver in it too, that's what I used on my dog and she seemed to walk with no problems the next day (except for the funky bandage "sock").

Here's the gross part... when you change the bandages, be sure to check if there's oozing gunk coming out of the wound and soaking into the bandage. If there's gunk and/or swelling at all -- go to the vet, doggie needs a stronger antibiotic than neosporin.